Fritz: All Fritz

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CHAPTER 2 MAIL ORDER AND DIRECT MAIL Although they may seem similar and eventually have the same outcome, namely the selling of products through the mail, there is a difference between the Mail Order business and the Direct Mail business. With Direct Mail, an advertisement, perhaps a brochure or a catalog, is mailed directly to a list of potential customers. With Mail Order you start from scratch. You have no mailing list and you acquire your customers initially and primarily by advertising, although there are companies which will sell you a list of names and addresses. These names and addresses are usually filed by category - People who live in houses worth $500,000 or more - People who buy works of art - People who donate to charities - People who take vacations abroad, and so on. The price of these list can be anything from $20 per 1000 to maybe $200 per 1000 depending on the narrowness with which the category is defined. As I mentioned earlier, there are times when the two methods of doing business cross the thin divider between them. People running a Direct Mail business will sometimes advertise in newspapers, and people running a Mail Order business will frequently use their growing list of customers and approach them by mail. But there are certain products which definitely sell better by one or other of the two systems. When I say this, I have in mind the difference between impulse sales and enticed sales. Some products need quite a long approach. The enticed sale. The customer needs to see a list of benefits. They need to sit back and contemplate how that particular product can enrich their life. They need time to think about it. These products are usually high priced items. Automo- biles, houses, televisions and packaged tours. Such items sell best by Direct Mail. The person receiving a catalog or brochure by mail is able to sit back, relax and compare the qualities or advantages of competitive products. Perhaps you've seen the full page newspaper advertise- ments by Joe Karbo - "The Lazy Man's Way To Riches". Joe gives you lots of facts to mull over. His advertisement almost looks like a news feature. Newspaper advertising is very effective with the Mail Order business. Melvin Powers (Wilshire Book Company) Robert M. Haft (Crown Books) Frederick Mellinger (Frederick's of Hollywood) These, among dozens of other entrepreneurs have taken full pages in major newspapers. The cost of this power advertising is daunting, but if it didn't return far more than the amount invested in the advertisement, these experi- enced Mail Order people would avoid such a huge expenditure. Mail Order sales are usually impulse buys. The custom- er sees an advertisement that offers obvious advantages or fills a long felt need and they reach for their check book. Items that immediately come to mind are a gadget to increase an automobile's gas mileage or a cream that will soften facial wrinkles or a spray that will remove stains from a carpet. Impulse sales. A potential customer sees the advertisement and visualizes the need for it. A strong word of warning at this point, and I will repeat it farther in the book, never advertise the advan- tages or qualities of a product which doesn't truly possess those qualities. To do so can cripple your business, cost you time and money refunding cash and place you in real danger of legal action. If you are going to build a business, one that will grow and provide you with a substantial income over many years, your products must be well above reproach. Your customers must be so satisfied they will willingly deal with you again and again. Your products must be of sufficient quality to ensure you of future sales to those customers and give them reason to provide you with that most valuable of valuables, word of mouth advertising. No matter how wealthy you are, how big your business, you can't buy word of mouth advertising - and it can be the strongest foundation on which you can build your business. Many flourishing Mail Order businesses, if not most, have been started on a shoe-string. If you are already wealthy, if you believe you have everything you need, you are probably not reading this. If you are in a dead-end job or one that bores you to death, if you are looking for a way to implement an insufficient income, if you have been laid off or about to be, this book is for you. It can provide you with enough knowledge about Mail Order to get you started immediately on the road to wealth. How much will it cost to get into the Mail Order busi- ness? To start with, to get you off the ground, we will try to keep everything to a minimum. The products will be inexpensive, offering a reasonable mark-up. The advertising will be aggressive, but again kept to a minimum. You will need a small amount of money for the following. Printing, stationary, postage, products and advertis- ing. Exactly how much you will need for each will depend upon the way you approach your business. Some expenses, such as postage, you can't avoid, although even this can, and should, be kept to a minimum. When your business is large enough, bulk mailings can save you a lot of money. With regard to advertising and stationary, it is here that your computer can save you dollars. By using one of the many letter heading programs available in computer stores and on Shareware, you can print your own letter headings as you go, saving the cost of having a print shop provide you with stationary. By using your computer, together with suitable pro- grams, you can devise and print your own flyers and adver- tising, so saving more money, but more about that later in the appropriate place. As you can see, I am approaching this with a view to keeping everything as inexpensive and simple as possible. Later, when the money is coming in at a steady and constant rate, you can begin to reach out. By starting small and by choosing this particular business, you have several very big advantages. Let me tell you what they are and how you can make them work for you. A. Let's say that you are very small, a one man busi- ness perhaps or a husband and wife team. Advantage #1. Although you may not appreciate it at this time, being small makes you tremendously powerful. You don't have to hold consultations with a board of people before you make a decision. You can turn on a dime. Without breaking stride you can reverse decisions and be up and running with a new project while bigger companies are still thinking about it. Advantage #2. You can avoid creative restricting pressures. You are answerable to nobody but yourself. Nobody tells you what to do. It is very difficult to think creatively when someone is breathing down your neck demanding results. Advantage #3. You can do what you like with your profits. You can plough them back into the business, increasing your range of products or buying new office equipment etc., or you can diversify, opening an entirely different type of business. It's your business, you make the decisions. B. You have chosen Mail Order as your business. Advantage #1. You can keep your overheads down to a minimum, even to working on your kitchen table if necessary. One of Europe's largest cosmetic companies started out just like that about eight years ago. A husband and wife team making the creams and lotions themselves and working on the kitchen table writing the labels for each bottle by hand. Today Natural Cosmetics dominate a large section of the beauty products market in England, where they started, and can now be found in America, France, Germany and Australia. Advantage #2. Mail Order is very well accepted by the public. It is a highly respected, self regulating business, and is one which the public trusts. Advantage #3. It provides aspects which the public happily embrace. Each time a customer opens a package received by mail they get a pleasant surprise. It's almost like an un-birthday present. Add to that the convenience of not having to travel to the local Shopping Mall and you can appreciate why Mail Order is so popular. Advantage #3. Many of the items sold though Mail Order cannot be obtained anywhere else. This is one of your biggest advan- tages. If you can pull off an exclusive deal with a manu- facturer, not only will you arouse considerable envy in other Mail Order firms, but you can use that exclusive product as a door opener to new customers. In the next chapters, we'll explore the advantages mentioned above and how you can tailor them to your particu- lar business. I will explain how you can engage in adver- tising target shooting, how you can use your own personality and motivation to discover exclusive products, and how you can use a competitor's business to further your own. Mail Order is an interesting and challenging business. It offers individuals immense and unique opportunities to achieve wealth. There are very few other businesses which will provide a steady income while you grow and while you gain expertise. If you want a comfortable and affluent life style, Mail Order can give it to you, but you have to reach out for it.